The Honorable Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and the former United States Solicitor General provides overview and analysis of the past year of Supreme Court decisions.

Theodore B. Olson

Theodore B. Olson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office, a member of the firm's Executive Committee and founder of the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Crisis Management Practice Groups. Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984, he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.

Ted Olson agrees with predictions that Sonia Sotomayor will be easily confirmed as the Supreme Court's 111th justice. He explains that Republican Senators have historically been more willing to vote in favor of Democratic nominees than Democrats have of Republican nominees.

Ted Olson summarizes one of this term's highest-profile Supreme Court cases, which found that white firefighters from New Haven, Conn. could not be denied promotion because no minority candidates qualified. The ruling overturned the opinion of The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which included Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.